8 responses so far ↓

• 1 Colin // Jul 23, 2008 at 4:06 pm

  Needs the sequel video: “How to deal with drivers honking and screaming expletives at you as you take the entire lane.”

• 2 Lance // Jul 23, 2008 at 4:34 pm

  haha, so true Colin.

  Thanks for the vid Moe. I run into bottleneck areas like this a couple times on my commute and always wonder if I’m doing the right thing. Now I won’t!

• 3 Donald // Jul 23, 2008 at 4:42 pm

  I agree with Colin. Some good advice, but a lot of it doesn’t work when motorists don’t cooperate. The advice about don’t-pass and go-ahead signals is great though. Something I’ve used periodically but never consciously.

• 4 tadster // Jul 23, 2008 at 5:02 pm

  Am I bad for not signaling when approaching a stop sign? I almost never use the “slow” signal.

• 5 Sungsu // Jul 23, 2008 at 8:53 pm

  I don’t understand how using the “slow or stop” signal indicates the motorist should wait and not pass?

• 6 Iron Man // Jul 24, 2008 at 5:53 am

  I’ve used the hand signals for don’t pass or pass and it works, but only for the drivers that are patient and willing. Other drivers get hacked off and do what they want anyway—and then nearly cause a wreck. So maybe they learned something that will benefit the next cyclist. I don’t signal a stop when it’s painfully obvious that all traffic is stopped, but on narrow, overgrown, hard to see roads like that a little signal could help the driver behind.

  Personally I think anything a cyclist could do to show that he/she is trying to cooperate with traffic and communicate politely with drivers is a good thing.

• 7 tadster // Jul 24, 2008 at 7:56 am

  Honestly, the reason I usually don’t signal “stop/slow” is because I feel nervous taking a hand off or away from the brake in a situation where I will clearly have to brake soon.

  The front brake is almost universally on the left side (the signal side). Sheldon wrote that he always switched his front brake lever to the right side. I’m thinking more and more about doing that.

• 8 Michael // Jul 24, 2008 at 11:28 am

  I’ve got my front brake on the right lever, and I definitely prefer it.

  I noticed in the “Cyclist moves to right on uphill” segment something that I see all the time on the road: At about 2:49 in the video, the third vehicle to pass (all of whom are crossing the double yellow to pass) crosses back into the lane just in time to avoid a head-on collision.

  While I appreciate the consideration of motorists who are willing to give me such wide clearance when passing, I don’t think that it’s worth the possibility of a collision.

  Granted, I stay to the right as much as possible, especially on uphills, but the double yellow lines are meant to indicate an area in which a motorist is not permitted to pass due to hills, curves, or other visibility issues. I don’t think there’s anything that I can do as a cyclist to prevent this behavior, but I do think the video shows that the best way to stay safe on the road is to keep yourself out of the way and allow motorists to make their own choices, even when they are poor, or illegal.

Leave a Comment